swollen hands/brain fog

[rose]

I have been diagnosed for only 1 month. I have found that most of my symptoms over the past two or so years are common and covered in most forums. What I did read that was new on this forum was swollen hands.

My hands started swelling about 1 1/2 years ago so badly that I could hardly use them in the mornings. They seem to have improved some over the past month since I have been on the new diet. Is this a common side effect of celiac disease? Can I hope to see a return of the use of my hands? I garden, play piano, paint, and of course, keyboard. I would love to get the full use of my hands back.

I also have had brain fog for several years. As I was going through menopause no doctor ever took my symptoms seriously until I had a bone density and found that I had early onset osteoporosis. After a year of fosomax and still had a worsening of the bone density they sent me to an endocronologist. Therefore the diagnosis.

I am feeling much better and can think through things again but since I teach school, I worry about my ability to continue being in front of a class. The doctor says I have the silent form. Hmmm. Not to silent to me when I have ached in every bone and muscle in my body for over two years. I just think that no one would listen to me. I had to insist that someone run a thyroid test on my this fall to explain why my bone density was so poor. An also explain why I was having a hard time spelling.

[aklap]

Hi Rose,

Sorry to hear of all your trials & tribulations. But I am glad to hear that a GF diet is helping!!

CD is known for swollen & painfull joints. I don't know if I've seen just swollen hands before. Give the diet some more time. Some people may take 1 to 2 years to fully heal. Please don't give up - hang in there!

Yes there is "Silent Celiac" or Latent Celiac.. That means you have CD, but were showning no signs or symptoms. This can be dangerous because you can go on incurring damage w/o knowing it! Seems kind of strange to me since you complain of brainfog - a very common symptom!!

Unfortunately, going GF did not help my spelling I wish it would
_________________
Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[GFSarahSmiles]

Rose,

It's a shame to hear how long and with what symptoms people seem to be forced endure before getting a correct diagnosis. I was diagnosed almost a year ago, at age 21, and I can only wonder how long it affected me before finding the real cause of all those problems. I never had the swollen hands problem, but I found your mention of spelling interesting. Mental fog is common, and I experienced a lot of that as well. I kinda doubt that difficulty in spelling could be chalked up to Celiac, but as the world is learning, apparently anything is possible.

The reason I found your spelling problem interesting is this: When I was younger (elementary school) I could spell wonderfully and I was even among the top spellers at my school when I was in the fifth grade; but you would never know that now because by the time I reached around the eighth grade, I couldn't hardly spell to save my life. I never knew what happened and never really thought about it very much, but it did seem odd how I went from being a very good speller to having a lot of difficulty. It's just not something you would expect to happen that way.

Anyway ... I just thought I'd share. Whether there is a connection through our disease or not, you at least have company in your spelling difficulty.

[whitetigeress]

You should check out www.yeastconnection.com You might have issues with Yeast along with Wheat